Larry Summers: "The average supermarket has more information technology than the average doctor's office"

Larry Summers made this point on Meet the Press this morning while defending the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the massive investment made by several federal agencies over the next five years. Sadly, he is not exaggerating at all. What a sad reality, but why overhaul the entire system from the foundation up without first assessing the impact of this $58B+ investment on the physicians and their willingness to adapt to the 21st century?

Why is "insurance reform" more important that tort reform? You cannot even put the health care business in the same league as the grocery sector when it comes to information technology adoption, the single greatest factor in the cost savings and productivity increases across nearly every other sector of the American economy for the last 15 years, but we can somehow call it a failed industry and support wholesale restructuring??

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